NOTE: The following discussion is based upon research I have done from several sources. I have done this research to not only educate myself but to educate my friends and family on the importance of modern day religion. These writings are designed to open discussion. There is no right or wrong answer. I have not altered or skewed any facts. As Kinky Friedman would say, “May you be blessed by the G-d of your choosing” Recently I have been having some very interesting conversations with non-Jewish friends of mine about religion, politics, state of the world today and many other complex issues. But the one question I have been asked and sticks with me is why do Jews not believe in Jesus? Being raised Jewish, I was never taught that Jesus was evil or bad. I was just taught that we don’t believe in him. That Jews just believe in going straight to the source, G-d himself. But why was this? What was the reasoning? I never really thought about it until recently. Where does one begin in this journey? Do you start was Jesus Jewish? Was Jesus the Mashiach (Messiah)? Did he die for our sins? So, I went where we all go today for information. Google. There I typed in “Jewish Beliefs on Jesus”. And Google came back with 9,370,000 links! So, I started at the top. Jews do believe that Jesus was a Jew. Born in Bethlehem and raised in the Galilee and finally killed in Jerusalem. Jesus spoke Aramaic, as this was the language of the time, and his Aramaic name is Yeshua. Jesus was well learned in the ways of Jewish law and scriptures. In fact, many people called him “Rabbi”. In fact, in the Jewish Talmud (The Talmud (תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history.1) there is a story about Yeshua. But of course this comes with debate if this is the same person as Jesus Christ. According to the Talmud, Yeshu was the son of a Jewish woman named Miriam who was betrothed to a carpenter. “Betrothed” means she was legally married to him, but she was not yet living with him or having sexual relations with him. The story says that Miriam was either raped by or voluntarily slept with Pandeira, a Greek or Roman soldier. Miriam than gave birth to Yeshu, who was considered a “mamzer” (bastard), a product of an adulterous relationship. The Talmud describes Yeshu as a heretic who dabbled in sorcery and lead the people astray. Later, the Sanhedrin (the Jewish “Supreme Court”) ordered Yeshu stoned to death and his dead body was hung from a tree until nightfall after his death, in accordance with the ancient Jewish punishment for heretics.2 Interesting interpretation. I had a hard time finding more information on this to make a logical observation, so for the time being I will just leave it up to your own interpretation. The bigger question is: Was (is) Jesus the Mashiach? In Judaism, the answer is no. But first let’s revisit what the Old Testament and the Talmud say the Mashiach is to accomplish:
A. Build the Third Temple (Ezekiel 37:26-28).
B. Gather all Jews back to the Land of Israel (Isaiah 43:5-6).
C. Usher in an era of world peace, and end all hatred, oppression, suffering and disease. As it says: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall man learn war anymore.” (Isaiah 2:4)
D. Spread universal knowledge of the God of Israel, which will unite humanity as one. As it says: “God will be King over all the world — on that day, God will be One and His Name will be One” (Zechariah 14:9). According to Christianity these will happen in the Second Coming.3But these can not happen during the Second Coming according to Jews. The Mashiach will be human. The Mashiach will be of direct bloodline back to King David and be born of human parents. And the bloodline will be on the father’s side. So, according to Christianity, Jesus was born of a virgin birth, no father, no bloodline.The Mashiach will also need to be a Prophet. But this can only happen when all of the world’s Jews have returned to Israel. According to Talmud, in 300 BCE is when the last prophets died since the Jews of the time didn’t want to leave Babylon and return to Israel. 4
To summarize, the coming Mashiach (Messiah):
Will be born of human parents with a direct bloodline back to King David
Will bring all of the Jewish people home to Israel
Will usher in an ear of world peace and end all oppression, hatred and the such
Will spread the knowledge of one G-d to everyoneThus, the next Mashiach will complete these tasks outright.Another important fact is that Jews don’t believe in the Holy Trinity. Jews believe G-d is one and can’t not be divided into parts. This idea allows for God’s unity and uniqueness as a creative force. Thus, for Jews, God is the creator of all that we like and all that we don’t. There is no evil force with an ability to create equal to God’sJews don’t have a set group of beliefs about the nature of God; therefore, there is considerable, and approved, debate within Judaism about God.5
Now at this point, I am not sure where to go. So let’s head to another question. Did the Jews kill Jesus?While doing my research on this question, I became quite astonished at what I have learned. Jesus was tried on the charge of being “King of the Jews” (Mark 15:26; John 19:19). Pontius Pilate was judge, jury and executioner. But he was indeed prodded by the Jewish Priestess of the time.But in the Roman Era of Jerusalem, only Pilate had full authority to convict someone on a capital crime. Another strong point that the Romans killed Jesus is this: only the Romans used Crucifixion. The Jews used stoning for the death penalty.6
As in previous writings, there are some subjects that I am just not worldly enough to put into the correct context, so the following from the website: www.americancatholic.org:According to Mark 14:53-65, there were two charges made against Jesus: He threatened to destroy the Temple (14:58) and claimed to be “the Messiah, the son of the Blessed One” (14:61). Although the first charge is denied and the second charge is given an interpretation (see 14:57, 59, 62), there was surely something to these charges.7 And the research goes on; I discover that it was only a select few Jews, the high priests and those with the responsibility to protect the Temple and Jerusalem, who pushed Rome for the death of Jesus. So would we have Christianity today as we know it if Jesus wasn’t killed? Probably not. Jesus was not the “founder” of modern Christianity. It was the Apostle Paul and his followers from Nazarene. They were the original group to spread the word of Christ and baptize the Romans to believe in Christ. This then leads back to who killed Christ. In the New Testament, Christ is killed by the Jews.But as I have shown, the Romans actually killed Christ. The New Testament was changed to show the Jews doing the work, since Paul and his followers where trying to get Rome to convert to Christianity. You can’t get a nation to follow you if you bad mouth them or portray them as killers.I would like to go back to the Holy Trinity and why Jews do not believe in it. Jews see the Holy Trinity as idolatry, one of the three cardinal sins. Every day, Jews are required to say one prayer in particular, the Shema, which can be found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9Hear, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.The Shema is very blunt and to the point. To the Jews, there is only one G-d.As I sit here and read my research and try to figure out which way I want to go with it, I become even more confused. What is important? What isn’t important? Will somebody be offended by this? Am I sounding prejudicial without trying to be?I guess the bottom line is this. We have all been given freewill. We all have the right to choose what is best for ourselves. In all aspects of our lives. In the end, we are all going to the same place. G-d loves each and every one of his children today just as he did 2000 years ago. G-d bless.
Sources:1 Wikepdia contributors, “Talmud,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talmud&oldid=77080186 (accessed September 25, 2006). 2 Katz, Lisa, “Who Was Jesus?”, http://judaism.about.com/od/beliefs/a/jesus.htm (accessed September 25, 2006).3,4 Simmons, Rabbi Shagra, “Why Don’t Jews Believe in Jesus?”, http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/jewsandjesus.htm, (accessed September 25, 2006)5 “The Difference Between Judaism and Christianity”, http://www.convert.org/differ.htm, (accessed September 25, 2006)6,7 Harrington, Daniel J. “Who Killed Jesus?”, http://www.americancatholic.org/newsletters/sfs/an0399.asp, (accessed September 25, 2006)
